


Risk; Reward

by echoist



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Episode: s03e04 Unleashed, Flirting, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Scheming, people really need to start telling Danny things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-28
Updated: 2013-06-28
Packaged: 2017-12-16 10:24:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/860980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/echoist/pseuds/echoist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny escorts Ethan to the nurse's office after his beat down, and discovers that everything about his new crush isn't quite what it seems. Episode Filler for 3.04, Unleashed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Risk; Reward

 

'What is this?' Harris asks, his tone raised ever so slightly from the voice he reserved for lectures. 'What's going on?'

Danny pushes through the throng of students to where Ethan lies on the ground, bleeding from his lips and his nose. Isaac Lahey stands above him, looking confused, turning back as if looking for someone else.

'Are you all right?' Danny asks, one hand on Ethan's back, staring up at Isaac like he'd suddenly turned into a wild animal.

'He just – came at me,' Ethan manages to breath out, and Danny's focus immediately returns to where his hands have found an anchor. One hand on Ethan's arm, the other slipping around his shoulders, and all right, maybe he shouldn't be so obvious, but Ethan's _hurt_. Not just schoolyard roughhousing hurt, either. Ethan folds into his space, presses against his arm and a shudder rushes through Danny as he realises he has no idea what's going on.

Mr. Harris sends Isaac to the principal's office in no uncertain terms, but has a more difficult time herding his students back into his classroom after all the excitement. He stares down at the blood on the floor for a long moment before calling the janitor's extension from the phone at his desk. Scott uses the confusion to go after Isaac, and not for the first time, Harris gives him up as a lost cause. He searches the remaining students for someone that might possess even a modicum of sense, and his eyes land on Danny Mahealani, his arms wrapped around the obviously disoriented target of the attack. There's a concerned look on his face, and he glances up at Harris as if to say _what do I do?_

'Danny,' Harris orders. 'Take Ethan to the nurse's office.' He glances at his watch and heaves the heaviest of sighs. 'Might as well collect your books before you go, the class period's almost over anyway.'

Danny nods, squeezing Ethan's shoulder gently before ducking back into the room and throwing his book and notes into his backpack. Harris dismisses the rest of the students to gossip and flirt and generally make trouble – or whatever else it is they get up to in their spare time, because it certainly isn't studying for his class.

Danny bolts back through the doorway and helps Ethan to his feet, slipping one arm under his shoulder. 'How bad is it?' he asks, while the other students disperse.

'I'll be fine,' Ethan shrugs it off. 'Really, you don't have to be my knight in shining armor, or anything.'

'Yeah, well,' Danny replies. 'Maybe I'm worried about you. Deal with it.' There's a hint of humor in his words, and a new softness as well. They've only been flirting since the first day of the semester – or at least, Danny thinks they have. He's been known to make mistakes before. But Ethan's teasing smiles, the way he always seems to round the corner just ahead of Danny, brushing past his shoulder. The way he's started deliberately sitting across from Danny at lunch with the rest of the team, occasionally brushing his shoe against Danny's, and managing to make his apology sound the precise opposite.

That's not even counting the incident in the library, when Danny had rounded the corner and found himself staring into a pair of brown eyes so intense he'd smacked straight into another student. Despite his obvious embarrassment, Ethan had leaned over his shoulder at the table, resting his hand against the wood not even an inch away from his fingers. Danny caught a whiff of his cologne, or maybe aftershave; cedar, vetiver, lemon. Yeah, Danny decides. He definitely hopes they're flirting.

'Don't worry,' Ethan says as they round a line of lockers into an empty corridor. 'Really, you should just go on to your next class. I don't want to make you late.' Ethan hasn't looked him in the face, not once, and his words aren't angry or annoyed – they're forced, and almost scared.

'Dude, you just got the shit kicked out of you,' Danny states. 'I mean, no offense, but I really think you should at least let the nurse check you out.'

'I'm _fine_ ,' Ethan asserts, pulling away from Danny and facing away from him, arms braced against someone's locker.

Danny takes a step closer, tilting his head to see Ethan's face. The blood around his mouth and nose is gone; and Danny would have sworn up and down five minutes ago that his lip was split wide open. The bruises on his right cheek have faded completely, and his knuckles aren't even scratched.

'Yeah,' Danny says, swallowing hard around the word. 'Yeah, I can see that. It, ah, must've just looked worse than it really was,' he continues casually. 'I mean, really, Isaac Lahey? Not much of a contest there, really.'

Ethan glances up at him curiously, dark brown eyes hooded. 'You're really going to let this go?' he asks, his tongue slipping out to wet his lower lip. Danny's eyes track the movement and he makes himself look away, turning to lean back against the lockers.

'Well, you don't need to see the nurse,' Danny replies with an extra helping of sarcasm. 'I guess that means I don't know what to do with you, really.' Danny shakes his head, glancing out the window opposite.

'Are you – are you _angry_ with me?' Ethan stammers cautiously, and Danny throws him a sideways glance. 'It is because I don't actually have a broken nose, or – did I do something else?'

'Look,' Danny starts in, his gaze focused on the oak tree in the atrium. 'I'm not an idiot, and I know that there has been some serious Sam and Dean Winchester shit going on in this town for the last year.' The skin between his eyebrows wrinkles, and his lips twitch down at the corners. 'So seeing you covered in blood one minute and absolutely fine the next? I can handle that, all right? It's fucking weird, but I can let it go.' He presses his lips together, wondering if he should continue or not, but figures he's already stepped into the quicksand, no going back now.

'I just need you to understand that whatever this fairy tale bullshit is, it cost me my best friend. My best fucking friend since we were five years old, and I want absolutely _nothing_ thing to do with it.' Danny looks down at his sneakers.

Ethan turns slightly, leaning his left shoulder against the bank of lockers. 'You mean Jackson Whittemore,' he says, not even a question, just a remark.

'Yes, I mean Jackson,' Danny fires back angrily, staring up at the ceiling. 'I don't even want to guess how you know his name. You know what else?' he continues, turning back around to stare at Ethan. 'A lot of good people died last year, even more got hurt, and that's not even the weirdest part.' Ethan raises one eyebrow, and Danny's fists clench at his sides.

'Explain to me how Scott McCall went from perma-benched to all-star over night.' He runs a hand through his hair, stopping to take a breath. 'Isaac Lahey used to come to school with cuts and bruises and – and a lot worse. Then one night his dad gets literally ripped in _half_ and he just –changes. His clothes, his mannerisms - he stands up straight, he can take up an entire room with just a look.'

'Maybe I should be jealous,' Ethan suggests, a sly smirk on his face. 'You think that's why he beat me up?'

Danny blinks slowly, biting down on his tongue. 'No, Ethan, I don't think that's why he beat you up – if that's even what happened at all. I'm just saying, the kid went from cowering under his desk at loud noises to backing people down like it's his job to put them in their place.' Danny opens and closes his mouth a few times, but no sound comes out. Ethan leans his head against the lockers and waits.

'A whole class comes rushing out into the hallway and just accepts that Isaac beat the shit out of you for no reason. A year ago? It would have been Isaac on that floor, and any anybody else in the entire school standing over him. Ok, probably not Stiles, but the point is: everyone would have bought it. I don't know what's in the drinking water here, but that is _not_ the same kid I knew when we were freshmen.'

Ethan keeps his gaze focused on Danny's lips, hearing every word but still appearing infuriatingly nonchalant.

'Spooky Romeo and Juliet broke up about six times, but they keep showing up at the same places with the same people, arguing about shit that doesn't make any sense, not to mention caring about who overhears hears them. Lydia Martin completely lost her shit. She's still really not ok and the people who are supposed to be her friends just treat her like a casualty of war.

'Then there's Erica Reyes. She was the quietest, least popular girl in school. She had epilepsy and some assholes made fun of her and it was really fucking terrible, but then? Overnight, bam, suddenly she's a bombshell. Now she's been missing for _four months_.' Danny grimaces, somehow knowing she won't be coming back. 'Not coincidentally,' he soldiers on, 'Vernon Boyd went AWOL around the same time, but now he's back as if nothing ever happened, spouting some bullshit line about needing some space to _think_.' Danny glances back out the windows before several moments before speaking again. 'Now you and your brother show up in town, nobody knows anything about you, and people are dying again.

'Beacon Hills is a small place, Ethan. It's quiet, or at least, it used to be.' Danny's face falls as he remembers a past that's probably gone forever. 'We all grew up together, we know each other. Stiles probably still remembers every high score from kicking my ass at Super Smash Bros. But things are different now, they're - darker, somehow. Every time someone new blows through town, all hell breaks loose, and there's less people around each time to sort through the aftermath. So what the hell am I supposed to think about you, Ethan?'

'Are you done with the soliloquy?' Ethan asks, a wry smile on his face, hands jammed into his pockets. 'Cause drama class is down the hall and to the left.'

Danny ducks his head, slightly embarrassed. 'It's just – they act like I'm still their friend, you know, but they never tell me anything. And I just have this feeling that no matter how bad it was last year, it's only going to get worse. And that somehow -' Danny breaks off, forcing the words from his mouth. 'Somehow I know you're going to be a part of that.'

'I wish I could tell you not to worry,' Ethan says, stepping a bit closer and reaching out a hand before pulling it back. 'But honestly? You should be worried.'

'That's all you're going to say,' Danny asks caustically, realising belatedly that he's taken a step closer as well.

'That's all I _can_ say,' Ethan replies, looking Danny up and down from close proximity. 'Unless you want me to show you what's really going on around here, and I can promise you, it won't be for free.'

Danny looks up, trying to hold onto his anger and let it mask his surprise. 'Why would you tell _me_?' he asks, his eyes narrowing. 'Isn't this some secret monsters-only club?'

'Do I look like a monster,' Ethan replies with a shy smile, holding Danny's gaze. 'Trust me. Aiden and I, we're not from around here; we're not like Derek Hale and his secret little club of freaks.'

'Whatever you are?' Danny asserts. 'It's only going to get more people hurt.' He looks away, down the opposite end of the corridor. 'God, why can't I ever just meet a normal guy?' he mutters to himself, slamming a fist back into the lockers beside them.

Ethan turns slightly, taking only a small step to occupy Danny's personal space. He pushes Danny back against the harsh rust-and spray paint smell of the lockers, both hands sliding down the metal to rest against his broad shoulders. Danny doesn't fight it, feels the heat of Ethan's hands through his thin t-shirt, and wants it too much. He just looks down, instead, and swallows around the lump in his throat. Everything he wants always seems impossible, way out of his reach, but this? Ethan's making it pretty clear that _this_ could be easy. He just has to accept culpability for whatever he learns. Whatever it is that's scarred everyone Danny knows so badly, they'll never be the same. Risk, reward; Danny can't seem to find the right path between.

'You know, you seem to know an awful lot already, considering that no one's telling you anything,' Ethan says with a slight smirk.

Danny shuffles one sneaker against the floor. 'It's not like they even _try_ to keep it quiet. It's like some open town secret that everyone's in on but me.' He sighs, shaking his head slightly. 'Maybe I just don't know the secret handshake,' he bites off sarcastically, and Ethan laughs with a wide, genuine smile, sliding his fingers across Danny's shirt to slide along the v-neck and the skin beneath. Danny looks up through a slight haze, watching him, and _god_ , he wishes Ethan would smile like that more often. Wishes he could _make_ Ethan smile like that, whenever he wanted.

Ethan leans in, gently resting warm skin against Danny's forehead, and Danny makes a small, confused noise. 'Maybe normal isn't what you want at all,' Ethan suggests.

'You're really, really wrong about that,' Danny insists, but his hand wraps around the back of Ethan's neck without asking his brain for permission. He tilts his head ever so slightly to one side as Ethan leans in. He's so close Danny can smell that cologne, or whatever it is, again; dark woods and herbs and a lighter note that keeps it from being too overwhelming. He wants it to cover him, to be so wrapped up in it that he can't smell anything else; he wants to belong to it. Danny knows that thought alone should set off warning bells in his brain, but honestly, his brain isn't exactly firing on all cylinders right now. He thinks he can be excused from one random, nonsensical impulse.

The bell rings out, loud and jangling, signaling the end of the period and, for now at least, their conversation. Danny leans his head back so fast, it leaves a small dent in the locker door behind him. He presses a loose hand across his face, looking up at Ethan, who's still staring right back at him. A rush of students pour out around them from every side, and Danny tries to remember which class he has next, which locker is even his.

'If you really want to understand,' Ethan whispers, his lips so close to Danny's ear it's almost torture. 'You know where to find me.' Ethan gives him one last, considering look before turning away and blending in with the crowd.

Danny's knees nearly give out, but he manages not to sink down against the lockers like some awestruck freshman. AP English. That's where he's supposed to be. Down the hallway to the right, last classroom on the left. Danny makes it there like he's following a map, and spends the entire next hour trying to forget about the last ten minutes.


End file.
